There are basically four major settlement groups that anyone talks about. The valley people are known for being workaholics, but holy shit do their infrastructure projects impress.
The spirit talkers are a central trading and cultural hub where during a drought, people bring them food.
The fishing village has plenty of food and is a trading point because they have incredible luxury goods.
The lowlanders are asshole!SV who have discovered a cheap combo and they keep pressing the same button every turn. They were doing frightfully well up until the GM pointed out that their strategy was dependent upon unlimited growth unconstrained by environmental factors. They've been bitching for two turns now.
In order:
So, our infrastructure (irrigation and environmentally conscious farming) is apparently very impressive by local standards. Good to know.
Huh, that's another benefit of investing into culture and religion I didn't think of - people will want to come and give you stuff.
Investing in the fishing village sounds like a good idea. They're vulnerable now and will definitely appreciate our help. Not only does this give us seafood, but their dyes are one of the big luxury goods around here.
Aw, I've had games like this. But if you're just cheesing the game and neglecting the long term consequences you kinda deserve what you get.
... I kinda want to write a negaverse omake now from the lowlander's point of view.
That's completely beside the point. We don't need to become traders, we need to become a trade hub. Constantinople never had a lot of traders themselves, but they were the gateway to the East and became hugely rich thereby. We've started on that by getting the actual trade caravan people to consider us a priority stop, even though they aren't really-truly our people. Getting the fishing village in a similar position would have huge benefits.
??? Are you intentionally ignoring the fact that they pretty much begged us to help?
So yeah. Right now, we have the moral high ground and if we actually CAN help the fishing village people they will probably regard us as long-lost brothers and sisters. If we hem and haw and just send someone to check things out, not a lot will get accomplished and whatever problems are starting will only get worse.
The point is, you don't reply to an impassioned plea for help by sending somebody to look things over. You help, or you don't help and people will remember the fact you didn't help. Right now there's nothing terribly pressing we need to do that supercedes helping the fishing village, and it's EXTREMELY likely we can be paid in salted fish for helping them, thus alleviating the problem of our anemic harvest. Just because they didn't have enough to share with every village in the area doesn't mean that they don't have a lot more food than anyone who relied on agriculture the last few years.
Yeah, I'm gunning for the Fishing Village actions because I like the idea of having a good reputation and the friendship of all our immediate neighbors.
No, you're missing my point.
I don't care if there are spirits or not. So far it hasn't mattered.
We have done well without worrying about it, and there are more pressing and more obviously useful actions to take. I will care when I see any indication at all that the supernatural exists.
Look at it this way, you have two options. One option you know will make things better and will lead to better things to choose from in the future. The other option might do something, but you have no idea what. The other guy has done it, and it works for him, but people talk about you in the same breath they talk about him, so is it any better?
Is my point made yet?
Good point. However, religion does allow us to push our culture more and can give us additional benefits. Notice how the religious tribe had people coming in to give them food even during a
drought. It's one of those things that isn't
necessary, but would be nice to have.
Waiting isn't going to make it any better, and we're on neutral to positive terms with everyone else around us.
The big reason I want the attack now is that this is the worst that they're going to be for a while. Heck, we've even just had OOC GM confirmation that they're weak right now. If we give them time to get back on their feet, they'll get back to expanding faster than we can- and eventually, we'll be in their sights and we'll have to fight when they're in their prime. Better to strike now when they're at their weakest, even if we're not in tip-top shape simply because the waiting game helps them far more than it helps us.
It's true that they're vulnerable right now, but I don't think a single expedition will be enough to take care of them permanently. If there was a long term project to fight them I'd go for it, but I doubt a single raid won't be enough to cripple them. Bear in mind that these guys have apparently been fighting
everyone for at least the last few turns, so even if they're starving I expect them to have strong fighters. I want to improve our military a bit more before I feel confidant about taking them head on.
What I'm worried about is that we'll hit them hard, but they manage to recover and decide to go after us in revenge. Getting dragged into a long, brutal war is going to hurt our people. If we start a fight, we
need to finish it. Letting any of the lowlanders escape means that they'll survive, rebuild, and come after us again in revenge in a few turns.
The good news is that due to their actions, the lowlanders are hated by pretty much everyone. I feel that we need to take the chance to build up ties between the other nearby groups and expand our own infrastructure so that if/when the lowlanders become a threat we can face them as a united front and crush them completely.
